Fanger's model of thermal comfort: a model suitable just for men?

The predicted mean vote (PMV) model of thermal comfort is created by Fanger[1] and standardized in EN ISO 7730 [2]. The analyzed studies by Fanger show no significant difference in comfort conditions for gender and age. Although several studies said that women prefer higher temperatures, it was carried out with reference to the study of Yaglou (1941) [3], that this effect was due to different kind of clothing. The gender and age differences found no direct access to the model of thermal comfort. In 2007 Karjalainen [4] elaborated the difference between men and women. So the question raise if it is still appropriate to disregard the difference? Especially, since it is in our days useful and possible to adjust the temperatures of certain rooms to specific user groups. The article shows how the Predicted Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) diversify for different age groups and genders. The data basis is the German population statistics. If the RMR and the physical activity is the basis of the absolute metabolic rate, one could find clear differences by thermal comfort between the sexes. The predicted theoretical results will be compared with 120 data collected from the practice. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.